The Geologic Story of Canyonlands National ParkLohman, Stanley William
Science
The Geologic Story of Canyonlands National Park
Lohman, Stanley William
Canyonlands National Park (Utah) -- Guidebooks; Geology -- Utah -- Canyonlands National Park -- Guidebooks
At a point reported to be 350 yards above the mouth of Hell Roaring
Canyon, which enters from the east about 3½ miles below the rincon, an
early day trapper named Julien left his mark. Stone (1932, p. 69, pl.
39A) seems to have been the first river runner to find (from a
description given him by a Mr. Wheeler at Green River), record, and
photograph the inscription shown in figure 63. Mutschler (1969, p. 31)
indicated that this inscription is carved on a massive Moenkopi
sandstone bed about 40 feet above the canyon floor. A similar
inscription by Julien was found in Cataract Canyon, 31 miles below the
confluence, but it is now covered by Lake Powell (Mutschler, 1969, p.
65).
Some boaters are met by car and taken out to Moab or Green River via the
Horsethief Trail (fig. 1), just north of the park. The road along the
river here continues south for 6½ miles to the mouths of Taylor and
Upheaval Canyons, where it becomes the White Rim Trail.
[Illustration: INSCRIPTION BY JULIEN, near mouth of Hell Roaring
Canyon, thought to have been carved by Dennis Julien, an early day
trapper. Photograph by K. Sawyer, August 1914, member of expedition
led by E. C. La Rue (1916). (Fig. 63)]
Coming down the Green River, we enter Canyonlands National Park where
the Grand-San Juan county line meets the Emery-Wayne county line (fig.
1), about 2¼ miles north of Taylor and Upheaval Canyons. The National
Park Service had three successful test wells put down in Taylor Canyon,
and water under artesian pressure was found in the White Rim Sandstone
at depths of 373 to 482 feet. When funds become available, they hope to
complete one or more of these wells and pump the water up to Island in
the Sky, where two dry holes were drilled earlier.
About 5½ miles below Upheaval Canyon is an interesting ruin on a hill in
the middle of a large nearly closed loop of the river enclosing Fort
Bottom. This was noted by Dellenbaugh (1902) during Powell’s 1871 trip
and was described in more detail by Mutschler (1969, p. 33-34):
The ruin consists of two, two-story, interconnected, crudely circular
towers, and a third separate, completely collapsed tower, built on the
summit of the bluff with a commanding view downriver and of Fort
Bottom. Other collapsed structures are present on the summit, and a
slab-lined cist is present beneath the Moss Back ledge west of the
towers. The ruin was built of dry laid masonry and most of the mud
plaster on the inside has been washed away, leaving the structure in
danger of imminent collapse. Please do not climb the walls!
Fort Bottom also contains a cabin believed to have been used by Butch
Cassidy and the Wild Bunch (Baker, 1971, p. 198).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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